“A year or so,” he answered.
She almost laughed at the irony of it. She had been forced to relinquish her precious daughter because it was necessary that she resume her role as a good Christian wife. Her husband’s whore, however, was allowed to keep her bastard, and none thought the worse of her for it. Alanna Wythe might raise her daughter, but she, Velvet, the Countess of BrocCairn, must not even admit to Yasaman’s birth for fear of offending her husband and their peers. For a moment Velvet thought her heart would break all over again with the unfairness of it, but, taking a deep breath, she said, “I’d as lief the girl were back in England, Alex. Is there no way you can make her go?”
“I’ll try, sweetheart,” he promised, relieved that she was not going to cause a scene, “but Alanna can be stubborn, and I do feel a responsibility for little Sybilla.” He hugged her tightly. “Dammit, Velvet, I don’t want to talk about this now! I want to make love to ye again, lass. It’s driving me wild wi’ desire being wi’ ye like this!”
And indeed she could feel him burgeoning and swelling, pressing against her back. She took a deep breath so that her breasts swelled within his hands and moved provocatively against him, tipping her head back so that he could look into her face. “Do you know what I want, Alex?” she asked him. When he shook his head, she said, “Once you said that I reminded you of a kitten, but the kitten has grown into a sleek cat, and like a cat I enjoy being stroked. Stroke me, Alex. Stroke your wee cat,” and she slipped from his grasp to lay upon her belly.
She was a most delicious temptation, lying upon her stomach, propped up on her elbows, her round breasts hanging like ripe apples, her adorable bottom thrust up like twin hillocks. He feasted his eyes upon her in the waning firelight that cast golden shadows over her luscious form. Reaching out, he pushed her hair aside and massaged her neck gently before sweeping down the long length of her back to fondle her buttocks. He found the springy flesh of her bottom almost as exciting as he found her delightful breasts.
Velvet lay flat now, stretching her arms and legs out. Unable to resist, he lay atop her and began to tease her by licking at the side of her neck and blowing softly into her ear until she began to squirm slightly. Then he whispered, “Admit that ye are hot to fuck me, Velvet.”
She laughed. “You’re too impatient, Alex. I see that I shall have to teach you that half the pleasure is in the wanting, my darling! The truth is that you are hot to fuck me!”
He was astounded by her bold words, and she knew it.
“Do you really want that sweet child back, Alex? The one who fought constantly with you and lay passively during your lovemaking?”
He thought a minute and then, laughing, said, “Nay, sweetheart, I don’t. She was sweet, but Jesu! I far prefer the hot wanton that ye’ve become in our bed. It still disturbs me that ye learned these things beneath another man’s tutelage, yet I love ye.”
“Always remember, Alex, that I believed Akbar was my second husband. I do not ask where you learned how to be a man, nor do I resent the women who taught you. Do not resent the man who has taught me, for he is now without me, and you will have all the benefits of his skill. Now, dammit, get off of me, my wild Highland husband, for you’re crushing me beneath your great weight!”
He rolled off her, saying, “Then crush me beneath yours, lass!” She neatly straddled him, laughing softly down in his face. Reaching up, he began to tease her nipples, rubbing them softly until they began to thrust forward like little thorns. Watching her passion rise through his slitted amber eyes, he firmly pinched each nipple, sending little thrills throughout her so that she rubbed herself against him in a most erotic manner, her breath coming in shorter gasps.
“Now, my wanton wife,” he said softly, “I shall teach ye that ye yet have things to learn, things that ye will learn from me, and no other man. Lean back, Velvet, and brace yerself upon yer arms.” When she had obeyed him, he lifted his heavy and hardened loveshaft and began to rub it against her throbbing little jewel.
Velvet whimpered deep in her throat as tiny flames of pure desire began to touch her. This was a most delicious torture. She quivered slightly as she felt him caressing her softly, sensually, but when she attempted to shift herself so that he might enter her body, he reached out and prevented her.
“Nay, lass. Not yet. I will say when this time.”
“I … I can bear no more, Alex.” Her voice was beginning to quaver.
“Aye, lass, ye can bear more, and ye will, or in the end I shall not gie ye that hot sweetness ye crave. Did ye not tell me that the wanting was a part of the lovemaking?” Then he began again to tease her.
Velvet thought that she would die with the pleasure that his touch evoked. Looking down, she saw the ruby head of his shaft, almost glowing with its passion, stroking at the fountain of her very desire, which was now pearly with her lovejuices. She felt poised upon a precipice, and each touch brought her nearer to the brink. Finally she could bear it no longer, and with a little cry she slipped over the edge to whirl away into pure pleasure.
“That’s it, lass,” she heard him encourage her.
When her head cleared, he was still playing with her, and she could feel her hunger beginning to rise once more. “Oh, Alex,” she sobbed.
“Stop trying to gain control, Velvet,” he said. “Let it happen, lass. Let me pleasure ye for ye’ll soon pleasure me.”
It was too much this time, and she fell forward, but he caught her in his embrace. Turning her onto her back, he spread her wide to him and drove into her throbbing, honeyed sheath. Her scream of satisfaction almost caused him to lose his careful control, but he held fast and began to pump into her with long, slow strokes of his manhood.
“Ah, Alex,” she cried, “ ’tis sweet! ’Tis so sweet, my darling!” Her nails raked a path down his straining back.
His rhythm increased, and he towered above her, thrusting fiercely within her eager body. He felt all-powerful! She inspired him to the heights of passion such as he had never attained before, and she kept pace with him, thrusting her buttocks up to meet his every downward stroke. Wrapping her legs about him as she had done earlier, she smoothed her hands down his back, cupping his tight buttocks within her warm hands, sending hot thrills of delight through him.
“Christ, Velvet!” He groaned as he moved from sanity to total mindlessness.
“That’s it, my wild Highland lord,” she breathed in his ear, “love me! Love me well!”
Neither of them remembered the ending to this interlude, for Velvet, climbing passion’s peak, found herself falling away into a state of unconsciousness, so great was her lust for her husband. As for Alex, he could not remember a great deal more than the fact that, unable to bear any more of the delicious combat between them, his throbbing body had dissolved into hers, and he had rolled away from her in his last conscious moment.
Velvet awoke, chilled and exhausted. The gray light of early dawn was beginning to creep into the room. Beside her, Alex was sprawled, his long legs and arms akimbo. Her eyes went to his sex, and she smiled to herself. One of God’s great mysteries surely had to do with a man’s cock. It was hard to believe that the cupid’s bow now between her husband’s legs was the mighty lance that twice the night before had pierced her so sweetly.
Slipping from the bed, she knelt by the fireplace and, finding several hot coals left there, fed them little pieces of kindling until she regained a small flame, which she then encouraged into a decent fire. There was still a half kettle of water left, and this she heated while emptying the cold basin out the window. Refilling the silver basin with the now warmed water, she took a fresh cloth and began to bathe herself.
“I thought that was my duty,” Alex said sleepily, and with a smile Velvet brought the basin to the bedside and handed him the cloth.
